Background

In the past year, we have watched—and experienced firsthand at Northwestern—the tension across the country as African American/Black students describe their experiences on college campuses, stage protests, and demand change. They are asking us to listen, to try and understand their experiences on campus, and to put in place support mechanisms, policies, and procedures that will allow them to thrive. Or, to put it differently, students want “systems” that work for them. As one Northwestern student described it,

. . . me coming from my background and why I was struggling. What was different about that? That’s like three years. I saw my friends get it together. No one explained to me, ‘You need help in this area. This is why this is failing you. This is why these STEM classes aren’t working out.’ No one contextualized it. No one explained that this system wasn’t built for you. Northwestern wasn’t built for you. You are going to struggle. I used to think, if it is all going wrong, other people got it—even when other people got it, I still thought, what’s wrong? It was self-hatred. All of that. I needed someone to contextualize my experience. I still haven’t figured out how to succeed in these classes, but hopefully, the next steps will be to understand how to do better, figure the system out. (Senior Focus Group)